“You might be able to, but that doesn’t mean you should have to,” Jaden pointed out. “You might like having someone around to care for you.”

Lyra took another bite of soup and propped her head on her fist, watching him. “Is that how the vamps do it?” she asked. “Hook up and then stay eternally mushy over each other? Because I know enough wolf couples who can barely stand one another, not that it…” She trailed off, her thoughts seeming to vanish into the ether for a moment before she came back.

“Not that it matters with the bond,” she finished quietly.

“Um,” Jaden replied. “Actually, a lot of vampires don’t bother. Eternity is a very long time to spend with one person.”

“Ah,” Lyra said, and he wished he could take the answer back, truthful though it was.

“Well, I won’t have to worry about that. I get one lifetime, that’s it.” Her smile was weak, though, and he wondered if they were having similar thoughts.

Yes, she did have only one lifetime. And he would be walking the world, looking and feeling much the same, when Lyra Black was nothing but dust. Even without all the other roadblocks they’d had put up between them, that one would be tough to surmount. Tough, but not impossible.

But it was a moot point, and Lyra knew it. Even if she should change her mind someday, Jaden knew he wouldn’t make the short list. Or any kind of list.

She stood, picked up her now empty bowl, and took it to the sink to rinse it out, near enough for him to touch. She couldn’t quite lift her eyes to his when she spoke.

“I’ve got some stuff to do. I’ll catch you back here in a couple of hours? The night is young and all that.”

“I’ll be here,” he said, trying to sound as casual as he could, though he knew he would think of nothing else until she returned.

“And thanks again for the soup. Really,” she said, this time looking right at him. “It hit the spot. And besides that, it was… sweet.”

That last word made him laugh, though not at her. “Not an adjective usually applied to me, but I’ll take it.”

A soft smile, slightly puzzled, touched her lips at his words. “You should. Have it applied to you, I mean. I know it’s none of my business, but whoever hurt you, those other vampires I guess, must be the most worthless bunch of bloodsuckers going. They’re probably ones we used to war with.”

“I think your pack has warred with just about everyone,” Jaden said, unexpectedly touched. “But thank you. And as to the other,” he lifted one shoulder, nonchalant, “they’ll get theirs eventually, I expect.”

“Well, if and when it does, I would love to get in on that action.” Lyra said. She started to walk away, paused, and then turned to look at him. “So… we’re good, right?” she asked, and he couldn’t ignore what she meant. She wanted to know if he was ready to forget what had happened and move ahead.

Since the answer “No, but I’m going to try, eventually,” wouldn’t be acceptable, he told her what she wanted to hear.

“We’re good,” Jaden agreed. But as she graced him with one last smile and headed out the door, he couldn’t help imagining what it might be like to share a life with her, short though hers would seem in comparison to his own. She was a warrior of a she-wolf, brazen and bold, but unexpectedly naïve and charming at times. He would love to show her the world she had tasted so little of, to show her there was more than just duty to the pack.

Pipe dreams, Jaden thought as he tossed the ladle into the sink, where it landed with an irritated little clank.

Just then the phone started to ring. At first he ignored it, assuming whoever it was would leave a message for Dorien. Instead, when the answering machine picked up, he heard a voice no one in this town would recognize but him.

“Jaden, I know you’re in there. Pick up. We need to talk.”

With a final, resentful look at the pot of dinner that had accomplished everything he’d hoped and nothing he’d wanted all at the same time, Jaden lifted the phone to his ear.

He was certain some fresh hell awaited him. Just what sort was all that remained to be seen.

Chapter NINETEEN

LILTING HARP MUSIC drifted through the dimly lit little store on the square called Moon Magic. Crystals hung from the ceiling, their facets glinting as they turned lazily on long bits of clear floss. A woman sat behind a long glass counter, her nose firmly planted in a battered paperback. He caught a glimpse of a blond ponytail and a pair of cat’s eye glasses when she gave him a half wave that indicated she had no interest in bothering him if he didn’t bother her.

Suited him just fine, considering who he was meeting.

Jaden wandered to the baskets of tumbled stones and plucked up a large chunk of tiger’s eye, rubbing it in his fingers while he looked around, wondering what sort of trouble Damien Tremaine was so intent on bringing him.

A small stand of necklaces caught his eye, the polished stones in the pendants gleaming in the soft light. He walked to them, wondering whether Lyra might like one of them, and whether she would accept it or wrap it around his neck. No doubt she would think such a gift would violate the terms of their latest truce. Not that it stopped him from considering the purchase anyway.

Lost in thought, Jaden barely registered the sound of the small silver bell above the door announcing another customer. Only the voice, speaking almost directly in his ear, brought him back to reality.

“I don’t really think any of those are your style.”

Jaden looked up with a jerk and found himself confronted with a familiar, and generally unwelcome, countenance.

“Damien,” he said. “There you are.” He looked around, saw that it was just the two of them in the store apart from the still disinterested clerk. “You’re going to get yourself killed just wandering around here like this, you know. They’re going to smell you!”

Damien smirked, and Jaden wondered whether there was much more to him than the aristocratic brat he projected. Generally, he thought not, but he put up with the mouthy Shade because Ty seemed to like him.

“I’m a Cait Sith standing beside another Cait Sith.”

“Lilim, now.”

“Whatever.” Damien rolled his eyes. “We both have that cat smell thing going on, and you seem to have inoculated the general populace somehow. Nobody’s going to bother us for the amount of time I’m here.”

“And again, why are you here?” Jaden asked, eyes narrowing. “You usually bring trouble with you.”

“No, I participate in trouble, I don’t bring it. Usually,” Damien replied. “This is a special case, though. I am announcing the approach of trouble so that you can get out of here before it shows up to skin you.” He glanced around critically. “Of all the things you could have gotten yourself tangled up in, Jaden, I don’t know why you picked this one. When Ty told me you were here I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. Wish I’d known, or I could have gotten you out sooner. I was here not long ago.”

That, more than anything else he’d said, piqued Jaden’s interest.

“Why—”

“Shade business. And at this point, it’s irrelevant. You need to skip town.” Damien lowered his voice further and leaned in. “The borders of the territory are crawling with Ptolemy. Getting back in was no picnic, but I can get you out. Whatever you think you’re doing here, this place is a lost cause. When the Proving happens, the Thorn is going to fall, and hard.”

Jaden could only stare blankly at Damien for a moment. “Ptolemy,” he said.

Damien’s lips thinned with irritation. “Yes, genius, Ptolemy! Here! All the way around the territory! Do you want me to draw you a picture?”

“No, no,” Jaden murmured, trying to wrap his head around what this meant. “But… I was attacked by a single vamp one of the first nights I was here. Moved like a Ptolemy, though I wasn’t sure if it was one of yours, some lowblood with an ankh in his mark, you know?”

Damien looked irritated. “You really think we’re still taking contracts on you, Jaden? That’s insulting.”

Jaden regarded him coolly. “Tell me you wouldn’t do it for the right price.”

“I wouldn’t,” Damien said flatly. “Though you’re making me want to reconsider that decision. What else? I can see there’s more.”

“Yeah, a couple nights ago. Four Ptolemy. Lyra and I managed to take them out. I assumed at that point that I’d been followed from Tipton. But they didn’t make it back, so…”

Damien gave a small but perfectly audible groan. “Overly simplistic, Jaden. You’d think your luck thus far would have taught you that. This isn’t about you, per se, though the queen following you here with an army is almost believable. From what I hear, Arsinöe’s rants about you, Ty, and the Lilim in general are rather gloriously unhinged. You might have wanted to play it a bit more low key with that patrol.”

“Hard to do when you’ve got four vampires determined to either get you in a restraint collar or take your head off altogether.”

One corner of Damien’s mouth quirked up. “You’ve got a point.”

“You know, we should go someplace else to talk about this,” Jaden said, realizing all at once how exposed they were for such a conversation. If the clerk was listening to this…

Damien waved the comment away and jerked his head toward the blonde, who was now bobbing her head in time to silent music. Only then did Jaden notice the earbuds.

“The teenaged wannabe Wiccan isn’t interested, trust me. Look, Jaden, I don’t know what more to say about it, apart from ‘take off while you can.’ ”

Jaden thought of Lyra, and of the wolves who had come so far in accepting him among them. “I want to know what’s going on. And I’m sure you know.”

Damien lifted an eyebrow. “Oh? You think I’d take a contract on you, but you’re going to believe me?”